In the last twenty years there has been a virtual explosion in the portable consumer electronics industry surrounding a variety of devices that are designed to provide the user with easy access to various media, including music, video and games. These devices range from dedicated media players to multi-purpose devices such as smart phones, laptops, computers and tablets. This growth has been spurred by improvements in processor speed, device efficiency, memory capacity, memory size and overall device cost. The acceptance of these devices, at least in terms of video and gaming devices, has also been on the rise due to improvements in display resolution, color accuracy, display thickness, display weight, damage resistance and electrical efficiency.
While there have been huge technological advances made in mobile devices over the course of the last few decades, in general the improvements in the audio performance of such devices have been limited to the progress made in the device's audio processing capabilities. In large part, that is because as mobile devices shrink in order to meet consumer desires and expectations, the space and size constraints placed on the speaker, as well as their location in the device enclosure, severely limit audio quality.
In order to overcome the audio performance limitations of the built-in speakers in a mobile device, many users couple their device to a set of external audio monitors, either in the form of a set of external speakers or a pair of earbuds/headphones. While this approach provides a potential solution, it adds to the cost of the device while limiting the device's portability, especially if an external speaker is used. Accordingly, what is needed is a loudspeaker assembly that provides improved audio performance and that is compatible with the small size commonly associated with laptops and smartphones. The present invention provides such a loudspeaker assembly.